Pretty URLs just need a little makeup. (click to enlarge)
What’s a “Pretty URL”? It’s when you take a URL, put a nice dress and some make-up on it, curl it’s hair…
Oh, sorry. Wrong blog.
A common mistake made by new bloggers is not changing the URL settings for posts. Actually, I’ve seen a lot of seasoned bloggers still using so-called ugly URLs. One of my favorite bloggers, one who gets a lot of traffic, does all the things “they” tell you not to do and she seems impervious to any negative consequences.
But for the rest of us who need all the help we can get, one easy way to get organic search traffic to your site is by utilizing pretty URLs. What’s a pretty URL? No, it’s not that a girl in a dress you saw last week. It’s a URL make from words in the title of the post rather than the “?p=number” automatically generated by the blogging software.
For example, the URL in the title bar for this post is http://marketingsquirrel.com/2010/09/pretty-urls-just-need-a-little-makeup . If I hadn’t changed the default post setting it might look something like this: http://marketingsquirrel.com/2010/09/?p=1234 .
I can tell you where to change the setting in WordPress. (Sorry, you’re on your own if you use blogging software other than WordPress.)
Once you’re logged in to your blog, go to “Settings” at the bottom of the navigation bar on the left. Click to open “Permalinks”. (click to see the screen shot of Pretty URLs option screen) Look at the top five radio button options. “Default” is the one that gives you a numbered post, as well as the aptly named “Numeric”. Choose either “Day and Name” or “Month and Name” to create pretty URLs. Another option is to create your own naming convention.
Don’t worry if you’ve been blogging for years and have a ton of numbered (sans pretty URL) posts. Just like exercise, it’s never too late to start! BUT – you will need to use a 301 redirect plugin.
UPDATE: In a recent discussion with another person in the business, the topic of the date in the URL came up. She recommends choosing the Custom option, and removing the date altogether. She recommends adding this code string to the Custom option: /%category%/%postname%/ to include just category and post name.
Happy blogging!
The Squirrel
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